Cahaba River Society

Contact Information

OSM/VISTA: Elizabeth Salter
Supervisor: Dr. Randall Haddock
Sponsoring Organization: Cahaba River Society
Address: 2717 7th Avenue S. Suite 205, Birmingham, AL 35233
Phone: 205.322.5326
Fax: 205.324.8346
E-Mail: lizalt@gmail.com (Liz); randyh@cahabariversociety.org (Randy)
Website: http://www.cahabariversociety.org
U.S. Congressional Districts: 4th, 6th, 7th
County: Jefferson, St. Clair and Bibb

The Cahaba River Watershed, referred to as the heart river of Alabama, spans 6 counties from Northeast through Central Alabama. It is not only the habit to 135 species of fish, 18 of which are unknown outside of the Cahaba and the Alabama River into which it drains, 27 remaining mussel species of the 42 known historically, and the largest remaining habitat for the shoal lily, but also a wealth of geological data, history, and the people in its path. In addition to being a popular recreation site for fisherman and paddlers, waters artificially pooled from the Cahaba provide water to a quarter of Alabamians.

The Cahaba River Society is not the only organization working for its protection, but it is the largest and most resourceful. Located in Birmingham, AL, CRS most often dedicates its efforts toward the urgent threats caused by a growing urban population and new development, resulting in sedimentation and flooding problems, nutrient pollution, residential dumping, and industrial wastes. Birmingham's iron industry flourished in the early 1900's, mainly because all the elements needed, coal, iron ore, and limestone, could be mined or quarried within the state and often within the county or surrounding counties. The Cahaba Coal Field is one of five significant fields within northern Alabama.

The addition of an OSM/VISTA to the CRS staff provides the organization an opportunity to expand its vision and service to another problem in the watershed and the people most affected by it. The OSM/VISTA will concentrate her efforts in the rural and impoverished communities of Leeds and Acmar, located in and around the Cahaba's headwaters, above Birmingham, as well as Bibb County, with an emphasis on the historical mining communities of Blocton and West Blocton. The latter two have a rich and significant history, but all the problems of abandoned coal mining towns in addition to the pollution upstream from Birmingham and Jefferson County. To that end, the OSM/VISTA has created a database of abandoned mine lands within those two subwatersheds and is slowly but surely surveying the miles of river within them for discharges and collecting water quality data.

One goal of the OSM/VISTA in the first year is to create a comprehensive AMD education plan that will improve the awareness of the problems created by mining, their impact, and the potential solutions and resources available. . Generally this will include making presentations to community groups, university students, and city and county officials, as well as published material for distribution. For teachers and students, it will provide lesson plans for classroom use and field trips in association with the society's existing CLEAN (Children Linking with the Environment Across the Nation) program, which provides watershed education field trips as well opportunities for students to organize and participate in service projects on their local waterway. Of the Cahaba River Society's 3,500 something members, few come from mining impacted areas. The OSM/VISTA will help build the community base and partnerships in the coal mining communities of the Cahaba watershed by disseminating information and being active in the communities. There is very little knowledge of the water quality issues associated with coal mining, even in the town formed essential by that industry. There are grassroots watershed organizations in the Bibb County and Leeds communities but they are lacking the members, resources, and information needed to support remediation projects at this time. Another goal of the OSM/VISTA will be to help those community groups to build partnerships and support as well, so that they might become strong enough to support a OSM/VISTA of their own. If growth and partnerships are sustainable, it might be a more feasible option for those groups to work on AMD issues in their area, as the Cahaba Watershed is extremely large. Developing existing organizations and cooperation between all Cahaba groups would be in the best interest of future projects, and the river.

• Cahaba River Authority
• USFWS
• National Wildlife Refuge Association
• West Blocton Improvement Committee
• Cahaba Basin Clean Water Partnership
• OSM Birmingham Field Office
• Birmingham-Southern College
• Auburn Universitys Urban and Rural Studios
• Nature Conservancy of Alabama
• Bibb County Schools (Board of Education)
• Friends of the Little Cahaba